


Don't Be a Stranger

by PickledGinger



Series: Tales of Kirkwall [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Some feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 12:21:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5785168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PickledGinger/pseuds/PickledGinger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leandra Aveline Hawke meets someone unexpected in the Fade</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Be a Stranger

Leandra blinked, suddenly finding herself on a grassy cliff-face. This… was not the Gallows. Where was she?

“What’s up?” Came a voice from behind her. She looked over her shoulder at the strange woman looking at her with a dorky smile.

“Uh… hey. What’s goin’ on?” She asked. 

“Welcome to Kirkwall,” The woman grinned, “Well, kind of. This is Kirkwall before Kirkwall was a thing. Nice and peaceful. All… nature and stuff.”

“Yeah, but-“

“Oh. It’s the Fade. Thought you’d know that. You are a mage, aren’t you?” 

“Y-yeah! I knew that!” Leandra said defensively.

“You fell asleep meditating at the Gallows, didn’t you?”

“Shut up!” Leandra snapped, feeling her ears burning, “Why are you even here? What sort of spirit are you?”

The woman sat down next to her, her ridiculously blue eyes shining with what could only be described as subtle mischief. She brushed her dark hair behind her ears and her grinned widened, “You are so, so pretty. Look at you!” 

“… Um… Thanks…? But… I don’t take compliments from spirits. Seriously…Who are you?”

“You’re smart. Think about it. Use that amazing little mage mind,” The woman said, nudging her in the side. 

Leandra squinted. This woman was familiar. It was her voice and her smile. She could have sworn that she’d seen and heard them before, “… I know you.”

“I’d sure hope so! We were close for a long time!”

Leandra’s eye’s widened, “You’re… You’re Marian Hawke! You’re my mom! Mythal’s ass, you’re my mom!”

Marian hugged her, “Hey there, Kadan. It is Kadan, right? That’s what Fen calls you?”

“Y-yeah! He does!” she nodded numbly, “but Merrill calls me Da’len, and uh, Varric calls me Chickadee.”

“… You are so wonderful… look at you! Ah, Andraste’s grace, your eyes! You have your father’s eyes, and- and what are those? On your arm?” Hawke grabbed her right arm and scrutinized the winding white tattoos, “Lyrium. Ooh… your dad must have been out of his gourd pissed!”

Leandra had to laugh, “Yeah, he was. I didn’t just get these for fun, you know. I did it because I wanted to know what he’d gone through.”

“Oh, and the fact that it would give you awesome glowing hand powers was not a factor?” Hawke teased.

“Of course not, what do you take me for?” Leandra smiled. And it dawned on her that this was her first conversation with her mother. She felt her eyes watering a bit, and she scrubbed at them furiously, “Oh, damn… be cool, be cool.” 

Hawke ran her fingers through her daughter’s hair gently, “h-how… is you father? Is he… happy?”

“Is he ever actually happy?” Leandra said wryly, “But seriously. Yeah. I think so. Aunty Aveline is always trying to get him to go on dates with cute high-town men. And Uncle Var is badgering him into telling him your love story, so he can write a book about it. He’s gotten really good at cooking, even if I never say it. And- oh! He reads all the time! He almost always has his face jammed into a book. He couldn’t read when you were together, right?”

“Wow! Fenris the bookworm, who would have thought?” Hawke chuckled, “Me. I would have thought. Always knew he’d love to read when he learned. And what about you, Kadan? What are you up to? We need to catch up, since I’ve been gone for- wow! Eighteen years! Time is all weird in the Fade.” 

“The Circle is amazing now! When you were around, it was this big scary mean thing, right? Well now people get their own Templars! Ser Diane lived with us while I was in training. I am in love with flame conjuring, and storm calling! I made fire for the first time when I was five. Freaked pops right out.”

“Really? Tell me about it. I want to hear everything!” Marian laid down in the grass, and started plucking at the longer strands, and tossing them on Leandra’s lap.

“Well I was playing with this little corn-husk doll Aunt Merrill had made me. It was the cutest thing. I dressed it up in armour, and made stick weapons for it. It was adorable. Well something scared me, and my hands lit up like a bonfire. Burned the doll to ash. I think I screamed, and cried like a tiny baby, and dad came running in, sword drawn-“

“Maker, he hasn’t changed.”

“-and he saw that my doll was burning in my hands, and I was sobbing as loudly as a tiny elf can. And he just, took my hands in his. He got burned really badly, but he didn’t let go until I was calm. He’s like that, you know?”

Marian sighed wistfully, “Hm… he got over the magic thing.”

“Oh, not at all. He makes this face whenever I work a spell. It’s all like:” Leandra tried on her best sour look and crossed her eyes for increased comedic effect. 

Hawke laughed, “Yeah that’s good. Amazing. Your impression is impeccable.” She sat back up, and took Leandra’s face in her hands, “You look so much like your father. Really, you do. It’s making me all misty eyed.” 

“That’s funny… because he says I look just like you.” 

“Tell him to visit me next time her takes a nap. I’ll fight him for it.” 

“… You really are my mom, aren’t you…?” Leandra said suddenly, “You really are. You’re just like me. I should tell Dad I met you. I think he’d like that.”

“He might. Or it might scare him,” Hawke offered, “He’s not a big fan of the Fade. It’s not the nicest place for people who’ve had hard lives. You’re a mage; you know how this place works. It can be a place you explore, and find remnants of Ages long gone, or it can be a mirror. The stronger the original image, the more vivid the reflection. Fenris gets nothing but mirror when he’s here.” 

“I never thought…” Leandra sighed, “He still has nightmares, you know. I used to get woken up by crashes and screams late at night. Usually he’d bolted out of bed, and taken a hack at the banisters with a sword, or bloodied his fists against the walls.” 

Hawke’s smile faded, “He’s… a disturbed person. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help the both of you.” 

“O-oh…” Leandra blinked, “I… I didn’t mind. Dad’s great… It would have been nice to have you around at times. But I had Ser Diane, and Merrill and Aveline. And Varric sometimes… I wasn’t ever really alone.”

“I’m glad. Honestly, in my last moments, it wasn’t me I was worried about. I’d had a decent enough life, might as well end it doing good. But, at the time, I was thinking about you two. My only regret was not being there to help out.” 

“You were! Dad talked about you all the time! He told me how amazing you were- are, I guess. He trained me pretty hard. Up in the morning, learning how to use daggers, then swords, then his claymore… then after that was magic. He always said I was up to it because of my blood. “Champion blood,” he called it.”

Marian’s face fell, “He… pushed you to do all of that? He wasn’t kind to you, or gentle?”

“He was! Of course he was! When I couldn’t work, he let me rest. When I was scared of my magic, he’d calm me! He made me the best I could be. Because you pushed him the same way…”

“… I apologize for that. Fighting is all he’s ever known. I didn’t think he’d force that on you, too. Kadan, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t be! I asked! I still remember it. When I was six, I asked him to teach me. He warned me it would be hard and painful, but I said I wanted to learn. I wanted to be like you, mom. I wanted to be a champion!” 

“Why?!” came the sudden response, “Why!? I died so you wouldn’t have to fight or be scared! Why would you volunteer for that life!? Why…?”

Leandra thought a moment, her heart in her throat. This stranger- her mother- was nearly in tears for her, how did she deserve this sort of devotion from someone she had just met? “I… wanted to protect people, I guess. Our people… u-uh, my people are still so wronged, mom. The mages are free. Now they only last piece is to save the Elvhen… And I wanted to be their champion. Like you were for the mages… I wanted to be a Hawke.” 

Her mother threw her arms around her tightly, “I love you so much, Kadan. You are your father’s child. Just… don’t make yourself suffer. Please. Try to be kind before you’re cruel, okay? Promise me?” 

And that was it. Leandra was crying, “Y-yeah, mom. Of course. I... I love you, too.”

After a few moments of sharing the embrace, Hawke pulled away, “Whoo… um… sorry I lost it like that. Normally I’m not a big crier,” She wiped her cheeks with the heel of her hand, “An apprentice is about to wake you up, so I have to go. Tell your father not to be such a stranger, okay?”


End file.
